By IANS
Bangalore : Trips abroad may deprive a seer of the right to worship at the famous Krishna temple in Udupi town of Karnataka.
Sugunendra Thirtha Swami, the head of the Puthige mutt – one of the eight mutts that administer the temple by rotation – may not be allowed to worship Lord Krishna at the temple when his turn comes in January.
The heads of the other mutts say he has committed the sin of ‘sagarollanghana’ or crossing the seas, considered a sacrilege by Hindus in olden times. Madhvacharya, the 13th century founder of the Dvaita (dualism) philosophy, established the temple and the eight mutts. These are Krishnamath, Admar, Kaniyur, Sodhe, Puthige, Shiroor, Palimar and Pejawar.
The mutt heads get the right to worship Krishna and manage the temple affairs in rotation. The tradition is called ‘paryaya’ (alternative). Next January Sugunendra Thirtha is to get this right.
The ceremony marking the ascendancy to ‘paryaya peetha’ (seat) is held January, once in two years, and is an elaborate affair that attracts tens of thousands of devotees from across India.
But the seven other seers want Sugunendra Thirtha to confine himself to administering the temple affairs and desist from worshipping Krishna because of his ‘sins’.
Sugunendra Thirtha is unwilling to give up the right. He defends his foreign tours, mainly to the US, saying he went abroad only to spread the Dvaita philosophy and to establish Krishna temples.
He is demanding the framing of a constitution for the temple to avoid controversies regarding the worship and administration of the temple. He has recently set up a three-member committee with a local lawyer as its head to frame the rules.
Sugunendra Thirtha said in a statement from Udupi recently “until the constitution is framed, the existing system should continue”.
He contends that he had informed the seven other mutt heads of his plans to visit the US and none of them had given a clear response. Hence he went by his conscience and visited the US, he said.
Sugunendra Thirtha said during his visits he had participated in conventions of Krishna devotees, lectured at universities, set up Vishwa Madhva Sangha (World Madhva Centre) and three temples in the US.
“Nobody has the right to snatch sway an opportunity to conduct the puja,” he said.
Sugunendra Thirtha, however, has promised not to go abroad during his paryaya period. The heads of the eight mutts plan to meet in the next few days to resolve the dispute.